Judenrat, German for "Jewish council", were administrative bodies the
Nazis required
Jews to form in each ghetto in Nazi-occupied
Poland. These bodies where responsible for local government in the ghetto, and stood between the Nazis and the
ghetto population. They were generally composed of leaders of the Jewish community. They were forced by the Nazis to provide Jews for use as slave labour, and to assist in the deportation of Jews to
extermination camps during the
Holocaust.